Buddhists: What are the Best Meditation Techniques for a Beginner?

Question

Loving-kindness, walking, sitting... what kind of regimens have you found most helpful?

Answer 1

It depends on your intention.If you are looking for a method to relax,then watching your breath while sitted comfortably is best.For wisdom go for vipassana.Loving-kindness is good for all occasions.
Look for a knowledgable teacher;he/she will able to tell you which meditation subject is best for you.

May you find the truth.

Answer 2

there are many many kinds of meditation. i'm doing pure concentration meditation, designed to quieten and clear the mind so that i can use it to look deeply, to see what's going on in my mind, and develop mindfulness & insight. its a difficult form of meditation @ the beginning, but it's well worth becoming competent in. it forms an ideal foundation for further practice in the future, and it's also very conducive to a happy, stable life in the present.
choose a suitable place in your home where you can practice meditation uninterrupted. it needs to be quiet, not too bright, and out of sight of other people.
once you found the spot, find a good firm cushion, so that you can sit cross-legged, having something to cushion your ankle.
to start, sit down on your cushion, sitting towards the front of it so that your body is sloped very slightly forward. experience will show you the optimum position. fold your legs so that your knees & ankles are touching the floor. the important thing is to have a good straight back & reasonably comfortable legs, so that your pgysicaly energy isn't blocked. place your 2 hands in your lap, palms up, one on top of the other.
once sitting there, wriggle a little bit to find an effortlessly comfortable position for your back & arms. you don't want to feel tension anywhere. then you can begin.
take a breath, hold it for a moment, then let it out gently. pause for a moment, then take the next breath. again hold it for a moment, and let it out again. do this for 10 breaths. once you've got the rhythmn, start to count your breaths. a breath is a complete cycle-- in, hold, out, hold- and most meditators find it better to count towards the end of a cycle rather than @ the beginning. in other words, you are counting complete breaths. simply count 1 to 10 in this way. when you've reached 10, start again. if your mind wanders and you lost the count, start again from one.
do this for 10mins @ a time for a week or so. when you are ready, increase your sitting time to 20mins. you can do it anytime, but most people do it regularly @ the beginning of the day & @ the end of the day.
this is all there is to it, and @ first you'll wonder why on earth you are doing it. your mind will wander, you'll probably feel twitchy, and you'll be bored. but persevere. ther's absolutely nothing better than this for calming the mins & opening mental doors that you never knew were there.
what comes after this? once you've got to a stage where you can follow your breaths effortlessly, so that you can say, 10-20mins, and not lose count even once, you'll be ready for the next stage. in this, you start to observe the contents of your mind. you'll still be using the method of following your breaths, but now, beacause of the concentration you've already developed, you'll be able to add in a new activity. it's not possible to do this until you've gained control of your mind.

Answer 3

It's not entirely explainable. For the layperson, just taking some time out of the day, usually the morning, and clearing your mind of all thoughts and resting yourself, flitting through thoughts as they appear without holding onto any of them is one way I personally enjoy.

Another type of meditation can be done at any time, it's where you think of all your actions, and intending to do them. Giving pause before you do them to be certain you want to. Whether you are pondering something to say to someone, or pondering how to open a door, simply intend for what you are doing. Inactive minds during action is a sign of not being right mindfulness.

Answer 4

Anapana meditation is best for a beginner. You get acquainted with focus,breath and how to just allow the experience. It is very simple, which is what makes it best for a beginner dealing with "monkey mind".

Answer 5

TRy sitting down and close your eyes. Focus on your breathe. WHen you breath in, your breathe willl go from your tip of our nose into your lung and into your stomach.When you breath out, from your stomach> lung> out of your nose tip. Follow where it goes. FOcus on those parts.

I read this on a Buddhist book not looking on the net. NEt doesn't help.

Answer 6

Whichever works best for you. Different techniques work better for different people.

Answer 7

Whatever you are doing, do only that. Let everything else go. When you can do that then you will be able to be still and listen.

Answer 8

light and sound method or

kriya yoga

Answer 9

The best Begginer's books out are: {In this order to buy or borrow from the library)

1) "The Beginner's Guide to Insight Meditation."
By: Arinna Weisman & Jean Smith.

2) "Open Heart, Clear Mind."
By: Thubten Chodron.

3) "Transforming The Mind"
By: The 14th Dalai Lama.

The Best Meditative techniques to practice are
Insight Meditation, Mindfulness Meditation{which is often called The Mindfulness of Breathing), and Lovingkindness Meditation {which is most often practiced while walking).
It is best for a beginner to start with Mindfulness Meditation {The Mindfulness of Breathing} The book: "The Beginner's Guide To Insight Meditation" which is listed above teaches this meditation, and insight meditation, and highly educates the reader on the Dhammapada, the Pali Canon, and the Life of
Siddhartha Gautama{known to most people as "The Buddha", after his enlightenment {when he reached mindfulness, awareness, the complete understanding & ability to see things, situations, people, clearly - as they really are, and to live mindfully in the present moment)!
No matter which aspect of Buddhism you are interested in, all are excellent, whether Theraveda, Mahayana, or Zen.
They all teach very effectively how to Transform The Mind - to obtain stable inner Peace of Mind, Happiness, and true purpose in life. Remember though, Buddhism does not convert others, only shares/teaches others who humbly ask. And Buddhism is Very Patient and Tolerable toward all people, and ALL Relgions of the world. We (even as Jesus taught his follwers) do Not Judge others, or other religions; We love others "without attachments", and are here to help mankind find inner peace and happiness.

Thank You for your Question.
Your Questions are an encouragement to others
Questions, open the door(s) to answers.

You have a very Optimistic Attitude in Life.
Have an Excellent Week. Take Care.

LOVE vs. Attachment.

What in the world is the difference between loving a person and being attached to them?
Love is the sincere wish for others to be happy, and to be free from suffering.
Having realistically recognized others' kindness as well as their faults, love is always focused on the other person’s welfare. We have No ulterior motives to fulfill our self-interest, or to fulfill our desires; to love others simply because they exist.
Attachment, on the other hand, exaggerates others' good qualities and makes us crave to be with them. When we're with them, we're happy, but when we're separated from them, we are often miserable. Attachment is linked with expectations of what others should be or do.
Is love as it is usually understood in our society
really love? or attachment ? or even possibly for some, only selfish lust.
Let us examine this a bit more. Generally we are attracted to people either because they have qualities we value or because they help us in some way. If we observe our own thought processes mindfully, and carefully - we'll notice that we look for specific qualities in others.
Some of these qualities we find attractive, others are those our parents, or society value.
We examine someone's looks, body, education,
financial situation, social status. This is how most of us decide on whether or not the person holds any true value to us.
In addition, we judge people as worthwhile according to how they relate to us. If they help us, praise us, make us feel secure, listen to what we have to say, care for us when we are sick or depressed, we consider them good people, and it is this type of people we are most likely to be more attracted to.

But this is very biased, for we judge them only in terms of how they relate to "us", as if we are the most important person in the world.
After we've judged certain people to be good for us, whenever we see them it appears to us as if goodness is coming from them, but if we are more aware, we recognize that we have projected this goodness onto them.

Desiring to be with the people a lot who make us feel good, we become emotional yo-yo's -
when we're with these people, we're Up, when we're not with these people, we're Down.

Furthermore, we form fixed concepts of what our relationships with those people will be and thus have expectations of them. When they do not live up to our expectations of them, we're very disappointed, or may become angry !
We want them to change so that they will they will match what we think they are. But our projections and expectations come from our own minds, not from the other people.
Our problems arise not because others aren't
who we thought they we're, but because we mistakenly thought they were something they
aren't.
Checklist: "I Love You if __________ "
What we call love is most often attachment.
It is actually a disturbing attitude that overestimates the qualities of another person.
We then cling to tightly to that person, thinking our happiness depends on that person.
"Love, on the other hand, is an open and very calm, relaxed attitude. We want someone to be happy, and free from suffering simply because they exist. While attachment is uncontrolled and much too sentimental, Love is direct and powerful. Attachment obscures our judgment and we become impatient, angry, and impartial, helping only our dear ones and harming those who we don't like. Love builds up others, and clarifies our minds, and we
access a situation by thinking of the greatest good for everyone. Attachment is based on
selfishness, while Love is founded upon cherishing others, even those who do not look very appealing to the eyes. Love looks beyond
all the superficial appearances, and dwells on the fact that they are just like us: they want inner peace, happiness, and want to avoid suffering. If we see unattractive, dirty, ignorant people, we feel repulsed because our selfish minds want to know attractive, intellectual, clean, and talented people. Love, on the other hand, never evaluates others by these superficial standards and looks much deeper into the person. Love recognizes that regardless of the others' appearances, their experience is the same as ours: they seek inner peace, to be happy, to be free from sufferings, and to do their best to avoid problems.
When we're attached, we're not mentally and emotionally free. We overly depend on and cling to another person to fulfill our mental and especially our emotional needs. We fear losing the person, feeling we'd be incomplete without him.
This does not mean that we should suppress our emotional needs or become aloof, alone and totally independent, for that too does not solve the problem. We must simply realize our unrealistic needs, and slowly seek to eliminate them. Some emotional needs may be so strong that they can't be dissolved immediately.
If we try to suppress them or pretend they do not exist, we become anxious, insecure, falling into a depression. In this case, we can do our best to fulfill our needs while simultaneously working gradually to subdue them.
"The core problem is we seek to be loved, rather than to love. We yearn to be understood by others rather than to understand them. In all honesty, our sense of emotional insecurities comes from the selfishness obscuring our own
minds. 'We can develop self-confidence by recognizing our inner potential to become a selfless human being with many, magnificent qualities, then we'll develop a true and accurate feeling of self-confidence. And
then we'll seek to increase true love, without attachments, to increase compassion, to cultivate patience and understanding, as well as generosity, concentration and wisdom.'

'Under the influence of attachment we're bound by our emotional reactions to others. When they are nice to us, we're happy. When they ignore us, or speak sharply to us, we take it personally and are unhappy. But pacifying attachment doesn't mean we become hard-hearted. Rather, without attachment there will be space in our hearts and minds for genuine Affection and Impartial Love for them.
We'll be actively involved with them.
If we learn to subdue our attachments, we can most definitely have successful friendships and personal relationships with others. These relationships will be richer because of the freedom and respect - the relationships will be based on. We'll care about the happiness and the misery of all human beings equally, simply because everyone is the same in wanting and needing inner peace, happiness, and not wanting to suffer. However, our lifestyles and interests may be more compatible with those of some people more so than with others and that is alright. In any case, our relationships will be based on mutual Love, mutual interests, and the wish to help each other in life.